REVIEW | PURPLE BUBBLE | EDMONTON

Tropical snow ice ($8.95)

Located just a couple of blocks away from Grant MacEwan, Purple Bubble is in prime real estate, guaranteed to be a popular space for students to hang out while grabbing some bubble tea and snacks. Right after KN's birthday dinner at Corso 32, we headed to Purple Bubble to continue the festivities.

With the opening of Coco's and Quickly, bubble tea has seen a bit of resurgence as of late. If you were to do a count, there are quite a lot of bubble tea shops around town, speaking to the demand for late night hang-out spots that don't necessarily involve partying or alcohol.

The outside of the shop doesn't look like much, but stepping in, the space is clean
and bright. Painted in a pastel lilac, there are two feature walls, one which displays their branding, and the other holding shelves of anime
figurines and knick knacks. There's also a sofa corner and a book case full of board games if you're looking to stick around for a while.

What's on the menu? Bubble tea in all forms: milk teas, blended teas, real fruit smoothies, slushes, the whole thing. Drinks can be customized in terms of sweetness (half sweet, regular, extra sweet) and additional toppings (mango stars, lychee jelly, red beans, etc.) can be added for $0.50 more. If you're hungry, there's rice bowls, dumplings, rice cakes, and more. The food is most likely made from frozen, but then again, you're not necessarily going to a bubble tea shop for the food.

Mango bingsoo (summer) ($7.95)

Seeing as though we just had dinner, we settled for a couple of their shaved ice desserts to cool down with.

I'm not sure if they ran out of their other flavours, but the tropical snow ice interestingly started off with a base of their matcha shaved ice. It was topped off with fresh mangoes, kiwis, a scoop of mango ice cream, and a drizzle of condensed milk. It was light and refreshing, but if I were to be honest, a bit small and underwhelming for the price.

Similarly, the mango bingsoo that we ordered came in a small rice bowl. Topped with mangoes and condensed milk, the ice was a little bit finer in the bingsoo preparation, and there was even flecks of oreo cookie crumbs throughout. Between the four of us, we polished off the two bowls pretty quickly.

Purple Bubble has been around for less than a year now, and it still
seems to fly under the radar a little bit. We walked in when it was
completely empty, and only one other table came by while we were there. It's a
perfect place if you're looking for a somewhat quieter bubble tea
joint.